Christophe Willem
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Christophe Willem (real name Christophe Durier), born on August 3, 1983 in Enghien-les-Bains, France, is a French singer and the winner of the fourth edition of Nouvelle Star (French version of Pop Idol) in 2006.
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[edit] Early life
Christophe spent most of his life in Deuil-la-Barre (Val-d'Oise), where his parents run a driving school. As a child, he learned figure skating and to play the piano. Later he learned to sing as part of a gospel choir "Young Voices". He also was composing songs at the age of fourteen.
Before deciding to study to become an economics and management professor, he continued to practice music and in 2004 he appeared in a Richard Anconina film, Alive, where he played the role of Henri, a young man with a golden voice who is, nevertheless, not considered suitable for the lead role in a musical. Since his film career did not continue after this, he returned to university, where he studied communication while working a number of part-time jobs, such as babysitting and helping in a theater.
[edit] Nouvelle Star
Pushed by his family and friends, he decided to try out for the 2006 edition of Nouvelle Star. With an initial audition performance of Strong Enough by Des'ree, he surprised the judges, who did not expect such a quality voice from an admittedly ungainly-looking man. Nicknamed "La Tortue" (The Turtle) by Nouvelle Star judge Marianne James, he proved to be a popular contestant, and on June 8th, was crowned the fourth Nouvelle Star.
He has stated that he would like to record a duet on his debut album with second-place finalist Dominique Michalon.[citation needed]
He joined artists such as Tears for Fears, Lara Fabian, and Murray Head on the Night of the Proms tour 2007.
His debut album "Inventaire" was released on April 16th, 2007, while the first single, "Elu Produit De L'annee" premiered in March. the album "Inventaire" debuted at #1 on the french charts and has already sold more than 362 000 (double platinum)
[edit] Performances
- Initial audition : Strong enough (Des'ree)
- Further audition : Etre à la hauteur (Le Roi Soleil/Emmanuel Moire)
- Top 14 : Sunny (Boney M.)
- Top 14 redux : Où sont les femmes (Patrick Juvet)
- Top 10 : True Colors (Cyndi Lauper)
- Top 9 : Ca plane pour moi (Plastic Bertrand)
- Top 8 : I Am What I Am (Gloria Gaynor)
- Top 7 : New York, New York (Frank Sinatra)
- Top 6 : Goodbye Marilou (Michel Polnareff), I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston)
- Top 5 : My Heart Will Go On (Céline Dion), Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees)
- Top 4 : Memory - (Barbra Streisand), I Want You Back (The Jackson Five)
- Top 3 : I'm Still Standing (Elton John), Pour ne pas vivre seul (Dalida)
- Top 2 : Born to Be Alive (Patrick Hernandez), La chanson des vieux amants (Jacques Brel), Last Dance (Donna Summer)
[edit] Discography
Albums
- Inventaire (16 April 2007)
This album peaked at #1 in France (FR) French Sales (1st week): 82000.
This album peaked at #1 in Belgium
- Inventaire, tout en acoustic (23 November 2007) (#22 FR)
Singles
- "J'irai chanter" (9 May 2006) (#8 FR ; #35 SWI)
- "Sunny" (7 July 2006) (#3 FR ; #17 SWI)
- "Élu produit de l'année" (16 March 2007) (digital single)
- "Double Je" (May 2007) (#1 France, #1 Belgium, #21 Switzerland)
- "Jacques a dit" (October 2007) (#4 France, #1 Belgium, #46 Switzerland)
[edit] External links
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